The Impact of COVID-19 on Consumers: Preparing for Digital Sales

Abstract

has affected everyone's daily lives. At least 316 million people in 42 states have been asked to stay at home to slow down the pandemic. In this aspect, businesses have been susceptible to make substantial transformations. Workplace operations of many businesses went virtual. The effect of the digital transformation on productivity and corporate culture has been studied extensively. Meanwhile, how COVID-19 has influenced consumers and the consumption culture has received relatively limited attention. Managers often take a wait-and-see approach on the impact of COVID-19 on sales. It is often uncertain whether and how many customers will return after the pandemic passes. Consumers live through the pandemic, and some changes might be long-lasting even after the situation eases. We examine the pandemic as an accelerator of the structural change in consumption and the digital transformation in the marketplace. Managers might adapt to the digital transformation in the market to recover or even grow further the sales after COVID-19.

Destruction Decisions for Managing Excess Inventory in E-Commerce Logistics

“…3 : Strategic Partnership, 4 : Environmental and Health Impacts, 5 : Obsolete Product, 6 : Reallocation Needs, 7 : Product Substitution, 8 : Destruction Costs, 9 : Defective and Returned Item. 3 : Strategic Partnership, 4 : Environmental and Health Impacts, 5 : Obsolete Product, 6 : Reallocation Needs, 7 : Product Substitution, 8 : Destruction Costs, 9 : Defective and Returned Item. 3 : Strategic Partnership, 4 : Environmental and Health Impacts, 5 : Obsolete Product, 6 : Reallocation Needs, 7 : Product Substitution, 8 : Destruction Costs, 9 : Defective and Returned Item.…”

“…Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has become increasingly important particularly due to its positive environmental impacts in reducing emissions and energy consumption of various means by replacing traditional shopping [1]. In 2019, e-commerce accounted for more than 15 percent of the overall sales worldwide [2] and has seen exponential growth due to the recent pandemic [3,4]. In this situation, staying competitive in the marketplace relies on the e-commerce companies' operational agility [5] and their ability to offer responsive services.…”

COVID-19 and Retail Grocery Management: Insights From a Broad-Based Consumer Survey

“…AFTER arriving in the U.S. in early 2020, COVID-19 quickly spread across the nation. The highly infectious and contagious nature of the virus disrupt consumer retail shopping behaviors, precipitating an unprecedented reformation of this industry and its supply chains [Kim, 2020]. Nearly one-third of consumers spent more on groceries [Everett, 2020]; simultaneously consumers have expanded beyond in-store grocery shopping to online platforms, such as Amazon Fresh and Instacart.…”

The triple-edged sword of COVID-19: understanding the use of digital technologies and the impact of productive, disruptive, and destructive nature of the pandemic

“…Governments and organisations (from multinational to SMEs) are allocating a great deal of resources to implement emerging digital technologies and generate new economic opportunities, improve service provisions and facilitate people engagement (Obedait et al, 2019). Since the start of this pandemic and resulting lockdown, the effect of the digital transformation on productivity and organisations has been studied widely (Hardy, 2020;Kamal & Choudrie, 2020;Kim, 2020). Digital transformation is projected to facilitate in developing new, substitute sources of employment that will be more pertinent to emerging new normal and nurture unlearning the past and relearning of new skills (Dutta et al, 2020).…”